The first thing to know about meditation is that there are various types; concentrating on the breath, grounding and mindfulness, focusing on an object, moving meditation, guided meditation, transcendental meditation…the list goes on! Dr Marina of The House of Life is currently participating in a challenge, Mindful in May, raising awareness of the benefits of meditation, and raising money for clean water in developing countries. The practitioners at The House of Life strongly believe in the benefits of this health tool and often use it during consultations in the clinic. Wake up, dedicate every thought towards getting out of the house, once out you’re in the same monotonous war zone that drains every bit of your energy out, get back home, prepare of the next day at war. Meditation is like an exercise for your brain, and like all exercises it isn’t easy to do when you start of, but it gets easier with practice. Practicing mindfulness meditation over an 8-week period reduces the severity of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms in women, according to a study published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology. Researchers from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Florida State University randomly assigned 75 women with IBS to either a mindfulness training group or an IBS social-support group.
The researchers found that compared with the support group, participants in the mindfulness group had greater reductions in IBS symptom severity immediately after the training (8 weeks) and at the 3-month followup. Get our Meditation Made Easy Beginners Guide along with weekly articles and free resources delivered to your inbox. Want to join the the community of teachers and practitioners who write for About Meditation?
Mindfulness is a type of meditation that involves focusing your mind on the present moment. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. May the arrogant be put to shame for wronging me without cause; but I will meditate on your precepts. I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. They will speak of the glorious splendour of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works. Do you feel stressed out, stuck in a rut, or overwhelmed by the challenges of daily living?
Mindfulness is the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to things as they are. You can join me at our monthly purelife club mindfulness event to experience it for your self. Melisa is a thought leader, sought after Speaker and Life Coach that expresses her gifts through healing,coaching, teaching. As part of this challenge, Dr Marina will be meditating for 10 minutes every day this month! It is the process that involves clearing your mind of every thought and letting just one thought consume it.
Like other exercises, it also helps to strengthen the part you’re exercising, in this case, the mind. Ongoing since pre-historic times the ancients believed that through meditation we get in touch with our very core, our true self, which enables us to have a clear perspective. Mindfulness meditation training involves focusing attention on present-moment experience and the nonjudgmental awareness of body sensations and emotions.

The two groups did not differ significantly in quality of life, psychological distress, and visceral anxiety immediately after treatment; however, participants in the mindfulness group had significantly greater improvements in these areas compared with the support group after 3 months.
Start meditating today and release the source of your stress with these proven meditation techniques. I started practicing meditation in 2008 after experiencing a car accident that left me in a tremendous about of pain.
To be mindful is to be aware of your present thoughts and actions, without judgement. Research suggests that mindfulness may improve modd, increase focus, improve creativity, improve sleep, increase brain funtioning and boost immune function. Many Christians can benefit from taking time to reflect on their thoughts, actions and how to go deeper in the word of God. The basic practice of bringing a kind and non-judging awareness to our own experience is straightforward. In these sessions, we engage in wise ways of working with these situations, using practices of mindfulness and compassion. In these sessions we incorporate Somatic Experiencing, a mind-body connection to healing trauma, with basic mindfulness practices to help release the stored and unprocessed energies of past trauma. It can be used to help alleviate stress, improve work satisfaction, productivity, and the quality of one’s life. By using well established principles and techniques of mindfulness, based upon Eastern philosophy and Western psychology, employees and managers can interrupt their self- defeating and irrational thoughts and become more focused on their job responsibilities. You can also check out our meditation cd’s or invite me to your organization to teach a class or speak with a group on the power of meditation. Melisa is a graduate of Roosevelt University, Chicago, with a Bachelors and Masters degree in Psychology. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University investigated how a short course of mindfulness meditation—just 25 minutes for three days—affected stress. Usually meditators concentrate on inhaling and exhaling but it could also be a chant of some sort that helps you to concentrate such as ‘om’.
This practice of a single pointed focus enables us to improve not only our attention but also helps in reducing stress by a huge margin. And a healthy mind as such will lead to a healthy body ready to take on any challenge thrown at us. Previous research has suggested that mindfulness training may be effective in reducing stress and pain symptoms in chronic conditions such as fibromyalgia and depression. The researchers noted that these findings, combined with a trend toward continuing improvement in bowel symptoms over time after treatment, suggest that mindfulness training many have long-lasting beneficial effects.
Whether you want to relax, stimulate creativity, gain enlightenment, or cultivate compassion and mindfulness, we help you learn how to let go. Meditation is creating that quiet space to hear from God and to get in touch with your Spirit.
Increasing awareness of living in the here and now is a wonderful way of living and being that can be applied to so many everyday situations. Taking time to be quiet and listen to what God has for us is a wonderful way to grow our relationship with our father in heaven. Many Christians can benefit from being mindful by meditating on the word of God. Yet each of us has strong habits, patterns and conditioning that can make it difficult to stay present with our experience moment to moment. In these sessions, you will build skills to bring mindfulness and greater peace to the challenges and stresses of your daily life.
They will become better able to cope and manage the bombardment of information, accept change in a morerealistic and healthy manner, and realize greater fulfillment in both their professional and .personal lives.
As long as you are taking that time for stillness during your day, you are more than half way there!

They found that people who meditated feel less stressed during demanding situations.The study was a three-day experiment involving 66 healthy adults aged 18 to 30 years. The idea is to sit with closed eyes and a clear mind and recognize when an extra thought trickles in, and stray it off and return to focusing.
In the current study, the researchers theorized that mindfulness training may be effective in treating the psychological factors associated with pain in IBS—a chronic disorder that interferes with the normal functions of the colon and is characterized by symptoms of abdominal pain, cramping, bloating, constipation, and diarrhea.
They suggested the need for further research to test for any common mechanisms of beneficial change in studies of different psychological interventions for IBS. Since discovering how to effectively practice meditation I have had the opportunity to teach it in the community, schools, corporations, with celebrities and beautiful people just like you. Look for opportunities to extend love and kindness to others. Allow the bible to be your guide on your journey. Taking some quiet time before you begin to engage in life will allow you to have a good perspective as the day unfolds. Individual sessions with me give you the opportunity to develop the skills and practices that specifically work for you to develop a regular meditation practice and enhance mindfulness in your daily life.
Some of the adults participated in mindfulness meditation, using breathing exercises and focusing on the present moment in 25-minute sessions for three consecutive days. Because I believe it is essential to know why we should try something I have provided some questions along with answers below. Mindfulness has been shown to help children and teens who have attention, behavioral and depression issues.
The researchers directed the study’s control group to critically analyze poetry instead of practicing meditation. Mindfulness is also highly effective in helping children with test anxiety or performance anxiety. Reflect on the life and words of Jesus who instructs us to not worry but to know that our heavenly father has met all our needs. After the final session, the participants gave speeches and completed math tasks in front of some not-so-friendly judges. Research has been shown that parents who practice mindfulness do better in assisting their children practice mindfulness regularly.
The individuals reported on their stress levels and the researchers took saliva samples to measure the participants’ cortisol levels, which allowed them to determine how well the participants’ bodies managed the stress.The participants who practiced mindfulness meditation reported feeling less stressed during the speech and the math tasks than their peers who had analyzed poetry. This indicates that while the meditators felt calmer, their bodies still experienced a high level of stress.“When you initially learn mindfulness meditation practices, you have to cognitively work at it—especially during a stressful task. And, these active cognitive efforts may result in the task feeling less stressful, but they may also have physiological costs with higher cortisol production,” explained lead author J. Email check failed, please try again Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.What is iLs?iLs is a complementary approach to brain fitness which can be integrated into a broad variety of educational, therapeutic and self-improvement programs.
In the same way we can train our bodies to become stronger and healthier, iLs trains the brain to process sensory, cognitive and emotional information more effectively. It’s about as simple as that.We start with music and movement, and then gradually integrate language and cognitive processes. The exercises appear simple but become increasingly difficult as we add new layers for simultaneous processing.